The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale - Geoffrey Chaucer - Google Books The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale 0 Reviews Six-hundred-year-old tales with modern relevance. As well as the complete text of the Wife of Bathr's Prologue and Tale, the student will find illustrated information on Chaucer's world, including a map of the Canterbury pilgrimage, a running synopsis of the action, an explanation of unfamiliar words, and a wide range of classroom-tested activities to help bring the text to life. Guided by the suggestions for study and the wide range of helpful information, students will readily appreciate Chaucer's wit and sense of irony, his love of controversy and his delight in character portrayal. What people are saying - Write a review We haven't found any reviews in the usual places. About the author (1998) Geoffrey Chaucer, one of England's greatest poets, was born in London about 1340, the son of a wine merchant and deputy to the king's butler and his wife Agnes. Not much is known of Chaucer's early life and education, other than he learned to read French, Latin, and Italian.

His experiences as a civil servant and diplomat are said to have developed his fascination with people and his knowledge of English life. In 1359-1360 Chaucer traveled with King Edward III's army to France during the Hundred Years' War and was captured in Ardennes. He returned to England after the Treaty of Bretigny when the King paid his ransom. In 1366 he married Philippa Roet, one of Queen Philippa's ladies, who gave him two sons and two daughters. Chaucer remained in royal service traveling to Flanders, Italy, and Spain. These travels would all have a great influence on his work. His early writing was influenced by the French tradition of courtly love poetry, and his later work by the Italians, especially Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. Chaucer wrote in Middle English, the form of English used from 1100 to about 1485. He is given the designation of the first English poet to use rhymed couplets in iambic pentameter and to compose successfully in the vernacular.

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a collection of humorous, bawdy, and poignant stories told by a group of fictional pilgrims traveling to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket. It is considered to be among the masterpieces of literature. His works also include The Book of the Duchess, inspired by the death of John Gaunt's first wife; House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls, and The Legend of Good Women. Troilus and Criseyde, adapted from a love story by Boccaccio, is one of his greatest poems apart from The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer died in London on October 25, 1400. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in what is now called Poet's Corner. Classic Review: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer | Kansas City Public Library Home | Latest at the Library | Kc Unbound | Classic Review: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer The Westport Branch will be closed from January 17 – 19 for a project to upgrade our checkout system.

Classic Review: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer Classic Review: The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer Monday, April 23, 2012 2:16 pm The Canterbury Tales is Geoffrey Chaucer’s most famous work, and yet it is incomplete. Chaucer finished no more than a quarter of his proposed project. And as far as literature goes, it remains my favorite mistake. Chaucer’s elaborate plan was for each of his 30 pilgrims (29 pilgrims plus Chaucer himself) to tell a total of four tales each. Their host, Harry Bailey, who serves as the emcee on the journey, suggests a bet – each of the pilgrims will tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two on the way back, to be followed by a vote for best tale, the teller of which will win him/herself a dinner back at the Tabard Inn. This would have resulted in a book of at least 120 tales, and a work over 1,000 pages in length.

Of course, there may have been fewer stories or more intended, as some pilgrims may have dropped out before the return journey to London, while others may have joined the group (one such add-on is the Canon’s Yeoman who tells a story of alchemy after he joins the pilgrims a few days into the journey). As it is, we only have one story from most of the pilgrims, and two from Chaucer himself. (Chaucer the pilgrim tells one story, “Sir Thopas,” that is so bad, the host breaks in and demands he try again, and he complies with the tedious “Tale of Melibee.”) Chaucer was inspired by Boccaccio, whose collection of tales, the Decameron , Chaucer had read – Chaucer had served in the king’s diplomatic corps and could read and speak several languages. In the Decameron, set in a villa outside Florence, ten people come together to avoid the plague ravaging Florence. During their ten-day stay, each of the ten tells a story. The hundred tales in Boccaccio’s book are often quite short (no more than a few pages in length).

Chaucer’s work, if he produced the work he promised, would have had more stories, and stories of greater length and complexity than Boccaccio attempted. Some tales are quite long. The “Knight’s Tale” is about 30 pages in length, while the “Parson’s Tale” (more a sermon on the seven deadly sins than a tale) is about 50 pages. The tales run the gamut of tales known to people in the Middle Ages and include ribald stories such as the “Miller’s Tale” and the “Reeve’s Tale”; medieval romances set against ancient backgrounds such as the “Knight’s Tale”; animal fables such as the “Nun’s Priest’s Tale”; Arthurian legends such as the “Wife of Bath’s Tale”; saint’s lives such as the “Prioress’ Tale”; and the “Second Nun’s Tale”; tragic tales, sort of, such as the “Monk’s Tale”; and cautionary tales, such as the “Pardoner’s Tale.” Each of the pilgrims has his/her own backstory, which, in some cases, explains the story told.

Some of the backstories are developed at length: the Wife of Bath tells her own life story in a prologue as long as her tale about the “loathly lady.” The Pardoner and the Canon’s tales further develop their own backstory, while the backstories of other pilgrims have to be gathered from occasional remarks they make or from the response of the host or other pilgrims to them. For example, when the Reeve reacts violently to the Miller’s tale of a carpenter cuckolded, we learn that the Reeve is a carpenter who is known to the Miller. We also get a brief snapshot of the pilgrims in the “General Prologue” which describes the initial gathering at the Tabard Inn in London. The poem’s arrangement is not entirely clear outside of the initial group that follows the General Prologue. The Knight tells the first tale, invited by the host, and is followed immediately by the drunken Miller, who feels the Knight’s moralistic tale of honor is a lot of drivel.

When the Miller finishes his tale about a cuckolded carpenter, the Reeve (who is also a carpenter and married) angrily demands to answer with his own tale, about a dishonest miller who finds himself cheated and cuckolded twice over by a pair of university students. Beyond this initial offering, the other tales have little indicators where they belong. Based on the rather animated framing of the first few tales, we can assume that Chaucer intended to join the tales together with such framing narratives, but that he had not got to that point when he stopped working on the Tales. Chaucer’s method seems to have been to work on a tale here, a tale there, and to put together the final grouping at the end. This final framing would have included geographical details of places passed along the way. Some of the tales we have (e.g. the “Cook’s Tale”) are incomplete, while others (e.g., the “Shipman’s Tale”) seem originally to have been written for a woman, though told here by a man. We don’t know why Chaucer did not finish his work, but the evidence suggests that he stopped writing and shelved it – rather than died while still working on it.

Appended to most editions of the Canterbury Tales is something of a retraction, in which the author begs the reader’s pardon for his various frivolous entertainments, among which he includes The Canterbury Tales (which must have been circulating among the court and those connected with it as individual tales or groups of tales) and his Trojan romance, Troilus and Criseyde , while hoping for divine favor for his work on Boethius’ Consolation and other philosophical works. What Chaucer has given, even in this fragmentary work, is a portrait of English Christendom as he knew it, and many have praised the breadth of Chaucer’s vision and his generosity. From the drunken Miller to the greedy (and evil) Pardoner to the lusty Wife of Bath, Chaucer makes no judgment of his pilgrims. All are pilgrims on the journey to Canterbury, and all are God’s children. Though some may have noble motives for going to the shrine of Thomas a Becket (e.g. the Knight), and others may have more questionable motives (e.g.

the Wife of Bath is looking for a new husband while the Pardoner is looking to drum up business selling pardons), all are bound together in one community, which seems to be how Chaucer saw the world. Chaucer may have seen the Canterbury Tales as a foolish indulgence, a work which exists only in broken form, and yet it is rightly considered one of the masterworks of English literature. Chaucer’s poetic output was tremendously popular and it helped to ensure that the standard English of Great Britain would be that spoken in the area around London – not so sure a thing in Chaucer’s day. You may want to tackle this in Middle English, but if you are looking for a good translation, I’d recommend that of Nevill Coghill , which captures the feel of Chaucer’s English in a modern idiom. The only decent recording of the Tales I found was John Miles Foley ’s wonderful reading of Burton Raffel’s translation. The only recording I found available of the work in Middle English used modern pronunciation of the words which gives us something strange, something neither medieval nor modern. Another translation is available as a free e-book from Project Gutenberg.

About the Author Bernard Norcott-Mahany , a library technical assistant at the Lucile H. Bluford Branch, is our resident connoisseur of classic literature. He is also the leader of the Black Classics and In the Heat of the Night book groups . Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically. Lines and paragraphs break automatically. CAPTCHA This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions. Website URL SparkNotes: The Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath’s Tale The Wife of Bath’s Tale The Wife of Bath’s Tale → The Wife of Bath’s Prologue (continued) The Wife of Bath’s Tale, page 2 page 1 of 2 Fragment 3, lines 857–1264 Summary In the days of King Arthur, the Wife of Bath begins, the isle of Britain was full of fairies and elves. Now, those creatures are gone because their spots have been taken by the friars and other mendicants that seem to fill every nook and cranny of the isle.

And though the friars rape women, just as the incubi did in the days of the fairies, the friars only cause women dishonor—the incubi always got them pregnant. In Arthur’s court, however, a young, lusty knight comes across a beautiful young maiden one day. Overcome by lust and his sense of his own power, he rapes her. The court is scandalized by the crime and decrees that the knight should be put to death by decapitation. However, Arthur’s queen and other ladies of the court intercede on his behalf and ask the king to give him one chance to save his own life. Arthur, wisely obedient to wifely counsel, grants their request. The queen presents the knight with the following challenge: if, within one year, he can discover what women want most in the world and report his findings back to the court, he will keep his life. If he cannot find the answer to the queen’s question, or if his answer is wrong, he will lose his head. The knight sets forth in sorrow. He roams throughout the country, posing the question to every woman he meets. To the knight’s dismay, nearly every one of them answers differently.

Some claim that women love money best, some honor, some jolliness, some looks, some sex, some remarriage, some flattery, and some say that women most want to be free to do as they wish. Finally, says the Wife, some say that women most want to be considered discreet and secretive, although she argues that such an answer is clearly untrue, since no woman can keep a secret. As proof, she retells Ovid’s story of Midas. Midas had two ass’s ears growing under his hair, which he concealed from everybody except his wife, whom he begged not to disclose his secret. She swore she would not, but the secret burned so much inside her that she ran down to a marsh and whispered her husband’s secret to the water. The Wife then says that if her listeners would like to hear how the tale ends, they should read Ovid. She returns to her story of the knight. When his day of judgment draws near, the knight sorrowfully heads for home. As he rides near a forest, he sees a large group of women dancing and decides to approach them to ask his question. But as he approaches, the group vanishes, and all he can see is an ugly old woman.

The woman asks if she can be of help, and the knight explains his predicament and promises to reward her if she can help him. The woman tells the knight that he must pledge himself to her in return for her help, and the knight, having no options left, gladly consents. She then guarantees that his life will be saved. The knight and the old woman travel together to the court, where, in front of a large audience, the knight tells the queen the answer with which the old woman supplied him: what women most desire is to be in charge of their husbands and lovers. The women agree resoundingly that this is the answer, and the queen spares the knight’s life. The old hag comes forth and publicly asks the knight to marry her. The knight cries out in horror. He begs her to take his material possessions rather than his body, but she refuses to yield, and in the end he is forced to consent. The two are married in a small, private wedding and go to bed together the same night. Throughout the entire ordeal, the knight remains miserable. While in bed, the loathsome hag asks the knight why he is so sad.

He replies that he could hardly bear the shame of having such an ugly, lowborn wife. She does not take offense at the insult, but calmly asks him whether real “gentillesse,” or noble character, can be hereditary (1109). There have been sons of noble fathers, she argues, who were shameful and villainous, though they shared the same blood. Her family may be poor, but real poverty lies in covetousness, and real riches lie in having little and wanting nothing. She offers the knight a choice: either he can have her be ugly but loyal and good, or he can have her young and fair but also coquettish and unfaithful. The knight ponders in silence. Finally, he replies that he would rather trust her judgment, and he asks her to choose whatever she thinks best. Because the knight’s answer gave the woman what she most desired, the authority to choose for herself, she becomes both beautiful and good. The two have a long, happy marriage, and the woman becomes completely obedient to her husband. The Wife of Bath concludes with a plea that Jesus Christ send all women husbands who are young, meek, and fresh in bed, and the grace to outlive their husbands.

1 The Canterbury Tales: Complete - Geoffrey Chaucer - Google Books The Canterbury Tales: Complete 4 Reviews Based on the definitive Riverside Chaucer, this edition of The Canterbury Tales contains the complete text of all 24 Tales, thoroughly updated scholarship from the past 20 years, and extensive editorial support. This volume is ideal for instructors who want to assign only the Tales and have no need for the complete Chaucer. An overview briefly outlines the basic plot and main idea of each Tale, while a section on language and versification helps students with pronunciation. Explanatory notes provide information on sources, problematic passages, and critical interpretations. Additional pedagogy includes a glossary, a section on Chaucer's life, an index, a general bibliography, and a list of abbreviations. What people are saying - Write a review We haven't found any reviews in the usual places. Contents INDEX TO THE EXPLANATORY NOTES 563 Copyright About the author (2000) Geoffrey Chaucer, one of England's greatest poets, was born in London about 1340, the son of a wine merchant and deputy to the king's butler and his wife Agnes.

Not much is known of Chaucer's early life and education, other than he learned to read French, Latin, and Italian. His experiences as a civil servant and diplomat are said to have developed his fascination with people and his knowledge of English life. In 1359-1360 Chaucer traveled with King Edward III's army to France during the Hundred Years' War and was captured in Ardennes. He returned to England after the Treaty of Bretigny when the King paid his ransom. In 1366 he married Philippa Roet, one of Queen Philippa's ladies, who gave him two sons and two daughters. Chaucer remained in royal service traveling to Flanders, Italy, and Spain. These travels would all have a great influence on his work. His early writing was influenced by the French tradition of courtly love poetry, and his later work by the Italians, especially Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch. Chaucer wrote in Middle English, the form of English used from 1100 to about 1485.

He is given the designation of the first English poet to use rhymed couplets in iambic pentameter and to compose successfully in the vernacular. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a collection of humorous, bawdy, and poignant stories told by a group of fictional pilgrims traveling to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket. It is considered to be among the masterpieces of literature. His works also include The Book of the Duchess, inspired by the death of John Gaunt's first wife; House of Fame, The Parliament of Fowls, and The Legend of Good Women. Troilus and Criseyde, adapted from a love story by Boccaccio, is one of his greatest poems apart from The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer died in London on October 25, 1400. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in what is now called Poet's Corner.

Chaucer--Clerk Geoffrey Chaucer: Canterbury Tales, "Clerk's Tale" Genre : a moral tale, like the "Man of Law's Tale," with many attributes of the "Saint's Legend" or "Saint's Life": heroine is tested by a character of dubious moral intent or outright evil nature; heroine's steadfastness is admired; heroine's steadfastness brings about a "miracle" (return of the children, unharmed). However, like other tales of this type that Chaucer adapts for CT, the moral importance of this tale is complicated by some extremely uncomfortable changes someone (Chaucer, narrator?) has made in the plot, characterization, and narration of the tale. Form : Six narrative "parts" composed in rime royal, seven-line stanzas rhyming ababbcc. This is also the stanza of the "Man of Law's Tale" (Custance), the "Prioress's Tale" (a Miracle of the Virgin about a little martyred boy), and the "Second Nun's Tale" (Saint's Life of St. Cecelia).

Since the sources and analogues of these tales occur in a wide variety of forms, but none of them is stanzaic, we must conclude that Chaucer considered this stanza particularly appropriate for tales of high moral importance. Can we also conclude that the tales are meant to be read uncritically, as moral exempla? This is one of the great interpretive cruces of Chaucer criticism for all of these tales. For a related stanza form devoted to short historical biographies told with moral intent (and outright lack of success!), see the "Monk's Tale," in the unique "Monk's Tale stanza": eight lines rhyming ababbcbc. For the inscribed audience's response, see the Knight's and Host's interruption of the tale at VII.2767 ff. (252). Source : Petrarch's De obedientia ac fide uxoria mythologia (A Fable of Wifely Obedience and Faithfulness), a Latin translation of Boccaccio's Decameron's last tale (day 10. tale10).

The tale type was widely distributed in European and Middle Eastern where it might circulate under titles like "The Monster Bridegoom," "The Patience of a Princess," or "East of the Sun and West of the Moon." Except for its happy ending, it also resembles the tale of Cupid's doomed affair with the mortal, Psyche, as told by the Hellenistic author, Apuleius, in The Golden Ass. For a study of how the CT version accentuates both the religious and the secular aspects of the story, increasing the difficulty of our interpretation, see Anne Middleton in Studies in the Age of Chaucer 2 (1980) 121-50. Characters : Griselde, her father, Janicula, Walter the marquis, "the people," Griselde's daughter and son, the "ugly sergeant," and the Earl of Panico. Summary : Walter, the monstrous "markys," is prevailed upon by his people to wed that his lineage might not die out, leaving them without a ruler.

He chooses Griselde as his wife, though she is "povreliche yfostred up" as the daughter of old Janicula, "a man / Which that was holden povrest of hem alle" (IV.213, 205-6). Walter asks Janicula for her hand in marriage, and swears Griselde to an oath of absolute obedience (IV.351-7). Then he has his female servants strip her of her lowly clothing and they array her in the richest garments for the procession to the castle. After the wedding and her first child's birth, Walter longs "To tempte his wyf, hir sadnesse for to knowe" (IV.451). Saying the people don't want the child of a low-born woman to rule them, he orders the child taken away in a fashion that implies the girl will be killed, but Griselde obeys and asks only that the child be properly buried. The girl is secretly sent to Bologna to be raised by Walter's sister, but soon he wants to test Griselde again. Her boy is sent away like her daughter was, and she once more obeys.

Then he says "the people" demand he take a noble-born wife, and orders Griselde's daughter brought to marry him as if she were the new bride. Griselde obeys all, asking only to be allowed to return to her father in the poor smock in which she met Walter, and cautioning Walter not to tempt the new bride as he had her because "she is fostred . . . / Moore tendrely" and can't stand such "adversitee" (IV.1040-1, 1042). Walter, amazed, reveals all and reunites her with her children. Griselde faints, weeps, and praises God and Walter for saving her children. The Clerk warns his listeners not to seek women like Griselde "now-a-dayes" for "the Wyves love of Bathe," and "Lenvoy de Chaucer" urges "archewyves" to treat their husbands badly. Interpretive Issues : 1) This tale has inspired almost as much interpretive discussion as the Wife of Bath's Prologue, which it directly addresses (IV.1170).

Because the narrator/Clerk directly addresses the Wife of Bath, this tale tends to be seen as a direct answer to the view of women's roles in marriage we see in her prologue. However, the scathing irony of "Lenvoy de Chaucer," which most scholars agree is mistitled by a scribe, destabilizes any claim of literal moral significance. What specific aspects of the Wife's character does the tale appear to "answer," and how might irony position the Clerk's "real" intentions somewhere between the Wife's version of women's behavior and Griselde's? Or, to ask the question another way, would you want either woman for a wife if you were a husband? 2) In the years since the "Marriage Group" critics had positioned the tale as described above, a major re-examination of the tale as a moral allegory has taken place. Common Christian doctrine held that soul was the "bride of Christ," and that at death the soul was transfigured in its wedding with the Divine (881).

This is most obvious in the striking way Griselde anticipates her return to poverty: "'Naked out of my fadres hous,' quod she, / 'I cam, and naked moot I turne agayn'" (IV.871-2). The debate then turned on the many changes Chaucer (or the Clerk) made in the tale which both intensified the apparent maliciousness of Walter's ("God's"?) actions, and which increased Griselde's complete obedience. For instance, ll. 647-9, in which Griselde assures Walter she does not mind her children's slaying as long as it's Walter's command, are Chaucer's addition. Similarly, ll. 932-8, the speaker's aside comparing Griselde to Job (for those who didn't get all the previous borrowings, like 647-9) and praising women's capacity for humility and faithfulness also are Chaucer's addition. How does this affect our reading of the tale's intent? Especially, how will we read this if we decide it is the Clerk's rather than Chaucer's version of the tale? (See l.

935--"Though clerkes preise wommen but a lite, / The kan no man in humbleesse hym acquite As womman kan" etc.) 3) The tale's echoes of the Wife of Bath's Tale are numerous, including 71-2, 155-8, 326-9, etc. However, that presupposes that the "Clerk's Tale" was written to oppose the current WoBT with its rapist knight and the loathly lady. What if our conjecture about "Shipman's Tale" is correct? Compare ShipT's twinned usages of "ynough" in a sexual/monetary sense (VII.219, 380) with these lines in ClT: 365 and 1051. What kind of "sufficiency" is being attested to by Walter in these lines, and how might it be answering the Merchant's wife in ShipT? 4) After the first temptation of the three, Walter is said to have "assayed hire ynogh bifore" and the narrator (Clerk?

Chaucer?) objects to those who praise the uncanny thoroughness with which Walter "tests" his wife: "what neded it / Hire for to tempte, and alwey moore and moore, / Though som men preise it for a subtil wit? / But as for me, I seye that yvele it sit / To assaye a wyf whan that it is no nede, / And putten hire in angwyssh and in drede" (IV.458-62). The common-sense objection to this tale's literal sense jams the reader into the need for another explanation (allegory?) while not offering any assistance in the form of explicit interpretation or even further similarities between the tale's situation and the soul's refinement in God's testing. This issue really extends #2, above, but it also complicates the situation because the speaker has specifically judged Walter's behavior "yvele," seeming to foreclose the allegorical identification of Walter with God.

See the note in RC on page 881 regarding the Nominalist doctrine of "potentia dei absoluta et ordinata" (God's absolute power and his power to actualize possibilities and to leave others forever unactualized). The point the Occamists are making involves the problem of knowing God's purposes, or "privytee" in the Miller's words, once one considers that the very notion of "purpose" would be, itself, a creation of God. Could God have been more like Walter? Could God, in fact, actually be a good deal worse than Walter, since God is (by Nominalist doctrine) unknowable to mortal minds? 5) The tale's denouement, with the false marriage and the revelation of the children's survival, will be strangely familiar to those who know either the French or Middle English versions of "Lay le Freyn." Do the tale's folktale elements increase or decrease the sense of tension between its potential for sacred allegory and its critique of male behavior vs. female endurance? How many other elements of the tale might you find comparable to material from the folk tales collected by the Grimm collection, for instance?

How do the folk tale versions in the Sources and Analogues differ most strikingly from this version? 6) The virtue represented by Griselde seems strongly identified with gender politics when the tale is not interpreted allegorically, so strongly, in fact, that it may be impossible for modern readers to arrive at a satisfactory sense of the model of disinterested caritas she might represent. If you are interested in a Zen koan which casts a male in Griselde's situation, click here . 7) The tale's date of composition might tell us something about Chaucer's intentions, since (unlike the fictional Clerk) he is on a definite historical path from youth to age and that clearly has something to do with the prologue's repeated references to time and aging. Since the writer of the prologue knows that both Petrarch and Giovanni da Lignano have died, this means the prologue must have been written after 1383 when the second of the two died (see 879-80).

What would a Chaucer in his forties think about Walter's activities, and Griselde's response, and how might Chaucer's intentions differ if this was the product of his youth, before he married and had children but while he was interested in philosophy and the imitation of his Italian and French poetic masters? Scholars call a date arrived at by the process above a "terminus a quo" or boundary after which the tale-composition must have started. What would be the "terminus ad quem," the boundary in time before which the tale must have been finished? Do any details of the prologue or tale (or other tales which might be datable) correlate to this terminus? Compare, for instance, the attitudes of the speakers in the Reeve's and Merchant's tales' prologues. 8) The stanza following the Envoy in most manuscripts contains the Host's praise of the Clerk's tale and his wish that his own wife might hear it. He then says "That is a gentil tale for the nones, / As for my purpos, wiste ye my wille; / But thyng that wol nat be, lat it be stille" (IV.1212e-g).

This mysterious, rueful and resigned statement seems to suggest Harry has much on his mind concerning his wife. The "Epilogue to the Merchant's Tale" continues the Host's concern for his disagreements with his wife (IV.2419-2440). After Chaucer's "Tale of Melibee," which specifically concerns patience in seeking vengeance and a wife's calming advice, the Host breaks out with a specific explanation of his worries about his wife (VII.1889-1923). How does this "cut-up" "Host's Tale" work to focus the concerns of the audience over the larger course of the tale-telling? How might it relate to Harry's desire to sponsor this contest of stories and his responses to the incidents of violence which occasionally threaten to break out, especially his own involving the Pardoner? With what kind of awareness do Chaucer's readers' have to read in order to detect this pattern in the tale-telling cycle?

Love in Knight's Tale and Wife of Bath's Tale Essay -- Chaucer's Cante Love in Knight's Tale and Wife of Bath's Tale Essay No Works Cited Length: 1532 words (4.4 double-spaced pages) Rating: Purple - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Love in Knight's Tale and Wife of Bath's Tale The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer around 1386, is a collection of tale told by pilgrims on a religious pilgrimage. Two of these tales, "The Knight's Tale" and "The Wife of Bath's Tale", involve different kinds of love and different love relationships. Some of the loves are based on nobility, some are forced, and some are based on mutual respect for each partner. My idea of love is one that combines aspects from each of the tales told in The Canterbury Tales. In "The Knight's Tale", the love between the two knights and Emelye is intensely powerful.

The love that Palomon and Arcite feel towards Emelye is so strong that the two knights feel that it is worth more than their own lives. At one point, Palomon tells Arcite that he shall either have Emelye or he shall die. The love that Palomon feels for Emelye is so overwhelming that he is willing to take on an armed man, in mortal combat, just for the love of a woman. Perhaps he feels that without her, he will surely die, so why not die trying to win her? The ironic fact about the relationship between each knight and Emelye is the fact that Emelye does not wish to marry either of the knights. She is aware that she is just a prized possession, one that is not fully known, because she has never exchanged a single word with either gentleman. However, in that time period, she could not easily express her feelings, and if she were able to, those feelings would most likely be ignored. Like already mentioned, this is so ironic because Arcite and Palomon are about to kill each other for Emelye's love and she doesn't want to be loved by either of them. She enjoys the thrills of maidenhood too much to have them ended by ... ...

middle of paper ... .... The Wife of Bath has used men in her life for riches. She leans toward a feminist nature and seems resentful toward most men. For women, she is easy to respect and admire. She is an intelligent woman, however, she may not know the limits of her games. That is the beauty of society. Thousands of years after this novel has been written, men and women still don not know what one another want. In taking both Psychology and Sociology this year, I hope to grasp a better understanding on how both sexes co-exist with one another. Works Consulted: Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale.” From The Riverside Chaucer, Third Edition. Ed. Larry D. Benson. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed Mack, Maynard et al. W. W. Norton and Co. New York, NY. 1992. 1551-1621.

SparkNotes: The Canterbury Tales: The Pardoner’s Introduction, Prologue, and Tale The Pardoner’s Introduction, Prologue, and Tale The Pardoner’s Introduction, Prologue, and Tale → The Wife of Bath’s Tale The Pardoner’s Introduction, Prologue, and Tale, page 2 page 1 of 2 Fragment 6, lines 287–968 Summary: Introduction to the Pardoner’s Tale The Host reacts to the Physician’s Tale, which has just been told. He is shocked at the death of the young Roman girl in the tale, and mourns the fact that her beauty ultimately caused the chain of events that led her father to kill her. Wanting to cheer up, the Host asks the Pardoner to tell the group a merrier, farcical tale. The Pardoner agrees, but will continue only after he has food and drink in his stomach. Other pilgrims interject that they would prefer to hear a moral story, and the Pardoner again agrees. Summary: Prologue to the Pardoner’s Tale My theme is alwey oon, and evere was— Radix malorum est Cupiditas.

After getting a drink, the Pardoner begins his Prologue. He tells the company about his occupation—a combination of itinerant preaching and selling promises of salvation. His sermon topic always remains the same: Radix malorum est Cupiditas, or “greed is the root of all evil.” He gives a similar sermon to every congregation and then breaks out his bag of “relics”—which, he readily admits to the listening pilgrims, are fake. He will take a sheep’s bone and claim it has miraculous healing powers for all kinds of ailments. The parishioners always believe him and make their offerings to the relics, which the Pardoner quickly pockets. The Pardoner admits that he preaches solely to get money, not to correct sin. He argues that many sermons are the product of evil intentions. By preaching, the Pardoner can get back at anyone who has offended him or his brethren. In his sermon, he always preaches about covetousness, the very vice that he himself is gripped by. His one and only interest is to fill his ever-deepening pockets.

He would rather take the last penny from a widow and her starving family than give up his money, and the good cheeses, breads, and wines that such income brings him. Speaking of alcohol, he notes, he has now finished his drink of “corny ale” and is ready to begin his tale. Summary: The Pardoner’s Tale The Pardoner describes a group of young Flemish people who spend their time drinking and reveling, indulging in all forms of excess. After commenting on their lifestyle of debauchery, the Pardoner enters into a tirade against the vices that they practice. First and foremost is gluttony, which he identifies as the sin that first caused the fall of mankind in Eden. Next, he attacks drunkenness, which makes a man seem mad and witless. Next is gambling, the temptation that ruins men of power and wealth. Finally, he denounces swearing. He argues that it so offends God that he forbade swearing in the Second Commandment—placing it higher up on the list than homicide. After almost two hundred lines of sermonizing, the Pardoner finally returns to his story of the lecherous Flemish youngsters.

As three of these rioters sit drinking, they hear a funeral knell. One of the revelers’ servants tells the group that an old friend of theirs was slain that very night by a mysterious figure named Death. The rioters are outraged and, in their drunkenness, decide to find and kill Death to avenge their friend. Traveling down the road, they meet an old man who appears sorrowful. He says his sorrow stems from old age—he has been waiting for Death to come and take him for some time, and he has wandered all over the world. The youths, hearing the name of Death, demand to know where they can find him. The old man directs them into a grove, where he says he just left Death under an oak tree. The rioters rush to the tree, underneath which they find not Death but eight bushels of gold coins with no owner in sight. At first, they are speechless, but, then, the slyest of the three reminds them that if they carry the gold into town in daylight, they will be taken for thieves. They must transport the gold under cover of night, and so someone must run into town to fetch bread and wine in the meantime.

They draw lots, and the youngest of the three loses and runs off toward town. As soon as he is gone, the sly plotter turns to his friend and divulges his plan: when their friend returns from town, they will kill him and therefore receive greater shares of the wealth. The second rioter agrees, and they prepare their trap. Back in town, the youngest vagrant is having similar thoughts. He could easily be the richest man in town, he realizes, if he could have all the gold to himself. He goes to the apothecary and buys the strongest poison available, then puts the poison into two bottles of wine, leaving a third bottle pure for himself. He returns to the tree, but the other two rioters leap out and kill him. 1

Question: Complete the title of one of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales – ‘The _________ of Bath’s Tale’.
Answer: WIFE